"Empty Overclocking" is a term we just made up, to describe unreal overclocking headroom that does not translate into any performance improvements, with AMD's A8-3850 APU. This chip can be set to run at base clock multiplier value above 29x on some motherboards, that will increase clock speed being reported to you, but that "increased" clock speed will not translate to any performance improvements at all.

This means that the multiplier is ineffective in driving the clock above its maximum default value. So the next time you see screenshots screaming something like "6.00 GHz" on air with the base clock at its default 100 MHz, don't be fooled, trust only those overclocking feats in which the multiplier is set at the maximum default (29.0x) or lesser, and in which the overclocker has increased the base clock among other things.

Update: It seems like AMD is aware of the issue, and forewarned reviewers about it. Apparently a glitch in the BIOS code allows the users to "set" higher multiplier values than the chip can respond to, even as the chip doesn't run at those values. Utilities like CPU-Z read those BIOS-set values and display the effective clock speed, even as the actual clock speed doesn't budge. AMD recommends only the base clock increase method for overclocking. As always, AMD warned that overclocked chips are not covered by product warranties. Perhaps future BIOS updates by motherboard vendors will fix this bug.

Well, AFAIK it is not a BE/FX/what shall I call it. So people won't buy it b/c of the unlocked MP, I guess. So the few fools who will "OC" this CPU via the MP will be easy to spot and ID as idiots (one should not trust OC reports without BClk/MP details anyway).

Well, AFAIK it is not a BE/FX/what shall I call it. So people won't buy it b/c of the unlocked MP, I guess. So the few fools who will "OC" this CPU via the MP will be easy to spot and ID as idiots (one should not trust OC reports without BClk/MP details anyway).

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This, most enthusiasts should know what to look for if they want to overclock - in the case of Bulldozer this will be the black edition/ FX models. Much like intels K series being monster overclockers and non k's suckin worse than a Maori hooker.

i read somewhere that this dued was saying that all bulldozer ES suffer from the same thing so any clock for clock comparsons with sandy at 4.0ghz where sandy is like crushing BD by like 25% that thats good news for amd because all current overclocks on new models is empty until the bug is fixed so that 4ghz sandy is actually going against the stock BD